“I don’t see the city anymore,” says Karen Page at one point during Marvel’s Daredevil, airing exclusively on Netflix. “All I see are dark corners.”

Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is talking about the mysterious threats she feels in the Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City, but she could easily be referring to the viewers’ experience while watching this show.

The series, which debuts on the streaming service this Friday, uses a number of dimly lit sequences to create atmosphere and suspense. Sometimes it takes a while to fully see a character’s face, or to understand exactly what’s happening. For a subtitle, the creators should have borrowed the name of the recent hit vampire comedy, What We Do in the Shadows.

Generally, though, this doesn’t affect your viewing experience in a bad way. You just need to be ready for it.

The show, which is the first title in a five-series agreement between Marvel and Netflix, follows blind attorney Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) as he tries to clean up the city as a lawyer by day, and then as a vigilante by night. There are times where the plotline moves slowly, but the big moments definitely have impact – such as when we finally meet antagonist Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), a.k.a. Kingpin, at the end of the third episode.

In the first few episodes that we were able to preview, Daredevil really succeeded in establishing the environment of Hell’s Kitchen – taking us into a church, newsroom, bowling alley, police station and a dive bar with a “cash only” sign in the background – and setting the scene for future NYC-based shows in the Marvel-Netflix deal.

Some of the dialogue feels a little melodramatic at times, especially the serious chats between Murdock and Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) in the second episode. But thankfully, Murdock’s nerdy law partner Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) is usually around to inject humour into the plot and lighten things up. And that’s a good thing, because things are awfully dark most of the time.

THE SHOWRUNNER

“When we first went into this, we really drew inspiration from the classic movies of the ’70s, like Dog Day Afternoon, The French Connection and Taxi Driver,” says Daredevil showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, on the phone with QMI Agency from a conference room in a Beverly Hills hotel.

DeKnight, known for his work on the series Spartacus, says the focus on darkness was definitely intentional.

“So many shows these days, especially on network television, they go through an executive process, whereby the time you get out on the other end, everything is so flat and brightly lit,” he says. “And that’s something we didn’t want to do on this show.”

DeKnight says that he’s been a Daredevil fan since he was a little kid, as he read comic books before he actually knew how to read, and made up the storylines by looking at the pictures.

But the amount of violence in this version of Daredevil might make the show a little inappropriate for youngsters. And that’s intentional.

“I don’t think this level of violence or gore would fit in Iron Man, or Captain America,” he says. “Those are perfect the way they are. But this gritty, street-level show really warranted going there… it is definitely more visceral, brutal and bloody than what we’ve seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far.”

THE FUTURE

So after binging all of the Daredevil episodes in one weekend, what else can you expect from the Marvel-Netflix partnership? Well, a second Daredevil season hasn’t been announced yet, but you can bet on these upcoming titles:

A.K.A. JESSICA JONES:

This project went into production in February, and stars Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad) in the lead role, as a former superhero with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder who decides to start her own detective agency. The show also features David Tennant and Carrie-Anne Moss, and the 13-episode first season should hit the streaming service by the end of 2015.

LUKE CAGE:

Cheo Hodari Coker, known for directing the rap biopic Notorious, was recently announced as showrunner for this series, which should arrive in 2016. Luke Cage stars Mike Colter (The Good Wife) as an ex-con with unbreakable skin, superhuman strength and a mysterious past. Viewers will first meet Cage in the Jessica Jones series, where he’ll appear as a recurring character.

IRON FIST:

We haven’t heard much about this title, since it’ll likely go into production after Luke Cage wraps. But it’ll feature the live-action debut of Iron Fist, a martial-arts expert with the ability to summon a powerful mythical force.

THE DEFENDERS:

This mini-series will combine all of the characters from the previous Marvel-Netflix shows – with Cox, Ritter and Colter reprising their roles – as they team up to battle crime in NYC. We’re going to have to wait a while for this one.